KOR
▲ South Korea's Lee Jung-min competes during the men's 5,000m relay final at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Italy on February 20 (local time). (Photo: Yonhap News)
Lee Jung-min, who played a stellar role in the short track relays at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, showcased his fantastic overtaking skills once again to lead the team to victory in the men's 5,000m relay at the 1st stop of the 2026-2027 International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Tour.
Lee teamed up with Bae Seo-chan, Lee Kyu-ho, and Shin Dong-min to claim the gold medal in the men's 5,000m relay final on the final day of the competition held at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada.
The national team struggled to find a breakthrough until late in the race.
Unable to find an opportunity to overtake while running in third place, they managed to surpass China and move up to second with three laps remaining in the final.
However, the gap with the leading team, Canada, was wide, making a comeback look difficult.
At that moment, Lee stepped up as the final skater and launched an astonishing pursuit.
With explosive speed, he rapidly closed the distance on Canada and skillfully sliced through the inside of the final curve to complete the comeback.
South Korea claimed the gold medal with a time of 7 minutes, 35.598 seconds.
Lee's last-minute comeback reminiscently brought back memories of the Milano-Cortina Olympics last February.
At that time, Lee aggressively cut through the inside and outside at crucial turning points in the men's 5,000m relay semifinals, securing successive overtakes to overturn the momentum. In the final as well, he consecutively bypassed leading skaters to play a decisive role in South Korea winning the silver medal.
Lee won the overall title at the national team selection trials held in April, earning the right to compete in individual and team events for international competitions in the new season.
And in his primary event, the relay, at the first World Tour of the new season, he fully lived up to his role as the ace.
Lee also performed brilliantly earlier in the day during the mixed 2,000m relay.
Lee took home the silver medal alongside Choi Min-jeong, Kim Gil-li, and Kim Tae-sung.
In the mixed 2,000m relay final, the national team was running in fourth place before final skater Lee successfully executed a comeback to place second.
Seizing the opportunity when the leading Canadian skater fell, Lee accelerated to flip the standings and even overtook third-place Poland to cross the finish line second behind the Netherlands.
By securing both a gold and a silver medal on this day, Lee solidified his presence as South Korean short track's clutch relay closer.
Meanwhile, South Korea did not capture gold medals in other events on this day.
Choi Min-jeong, who announced she will retire from the national team after this season, claimed the bronze medal in the women's 1,500m final with a time of 2 minutes, 28.183 seconds.
Having secured a gold medal in the women's 1,000m and a silver medal in the women's 3,000m relay the previous day, Choi added a mixed 2,000m relay silver and an individual bronze to achieve the feat of medaling across four events.
Choi has typically utilized a strategy in 1,500m races of conserving energy at the back of the pack until late in the race before moving to the outside to target a comeback victory.
However, she deployed a different tactic than usual in the final on this day.
She rose to the lead with five laps remaining in the final and led the race while picking up the pace.
Choi maintained her leading position until two laps remaining before the finish line, but conceded the inside and allowed an overtake to Courtney Sarault of Canada with one lap left.
Subsequently fatigued, Choi was also overtaken by Hanne Desmet of Belgium at the final corner, crossing the finish line in third.
Shim Suk-hee, who advanced to the final of the same event, finished sixth with 2 minutes, 28.694 seconds, while Kim Gil-li placed seventh amidst the misfortune of a fall.
In the men's 1,000m final, Bae Seo-chan won the bronze medal.
Men's national team ace Lim Jong-un was running in second, attempted an outside overtake, and fell just before the finish line, failing to secure a medal.
In the women's 500m, all skaters failed to advance to the final.
Having wrapped up the 1st stop of the World Tour, the short track national team will head to Montreal, Canada, to compete in the 2nd stop starting on the 31st.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
